15 Most Common Languages of English Language Learner Students
By 2025, an estimated 25 percent of K-12 public school students will be English language learners (ELLs). This increase in students also means an increase in language diversity — there are over 300 languages spoken in today’s US public schools. Below, data from the US Department of Education shows the most 15 commonly-spoken home languages by ELLs and their families, and how they’ve changed over time.
Home Language | English language learners, 2008 to 2009 | English language learners, 2009 to 2010 | English language learners, 2011 to 2012 | English language learners, 2012 to 2013 | English language learners, 2013 to 2014 | English language learners, Fall 2014 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spanish, including Castilian | 3,617,597 | 3,577,649 | 3,562,860 | 3,718,047 | 3,770,816 | 3,709,828 |
Arabic | 65,278 | 71,228 | 86,162 | 97,971 | 109,170 | 109,165 |
Chinese | 77,240 | 80,124 | 96,509 | 104,799 | 107,825 | 104,279 |
Vietnamese | 91,607 | 93,204 | 89,536 | 92,560 | 89,705 | 85,289 |
English, examples of situations in which English might be reported as an English learner’s home language include students who live in multilingual households and students adopted from other countries who speak English at home but also have been raised speaking another language. | 86,390 | 77,872 | 85,246 | 90,703 | 91,669 | 83,230 |
Hmong | 52,990 | 49,697 | 43,845 | 41,368 | 39,860 | 37,412 |
Somali | 26,264 | 27,771 | 27,861 | 30,959 | 34,472 | 33,712 |
Russian | 34,085 | 33,349 | 32,225 | 33,678 | 33,821 | 32,493 |
Haitian, including Haitian Creole | 37,074 | 39,736 | 39,883 | 38,768 | 337,371 | 31,428 |
Haitian, including Haitian Creole | 37,074 | 39,736 | 39,883 | 38,768 | 337,371 | 31,428 |
Tagalog | 38,849 | 37,038 | 32,766 | 35,395 | 32,141 | 28,547 |
Korean | 43,169 | 39,739 | 33,704 | 34,874 | 32,445 | 28,530 |
Urdu | 20,705 | 21,213 | 22,219 | 22,590 | 22,499 | 222,294 |
French | 16,525 | 18,504 | 18,849 | 20,018 | 20,799 | 20,275 |
Portugese | 18,055 | 15,229 | 15,725 | 17,085 | 19,142 | 19,839 |
Japanese | 16,212 | 14,582 | 15,011 | 16,727 | 16,591 | 16,403 |
Note: Includes all students who identified as English language learners —both those participating in ELL programs and those not participating in ELL programs. Data include all ELL students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools nationally at any time during the school year.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, EDFacts file 141, Data Group 678, extracted August 24, 2016, from the EDFacts Data Warehouse (internal U.S. Department of Education source); Common Core of Data (CCD), “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education,” 2008-09 through 2014-15.